Goodbye Anthem
by Joanna Acevedo
I try to explain what you’re like and all I can say is: birthday party. Sound of herons. Miracle. I’m in love with you but more than that I like the sound of your voice when you crack a politically incorrect joke. So what I’m saying is: I still care. When I’m popping my jaw I think of the worst things I could say to you and make lists. I’m trying not to wake up in the middle of my dreams. Trying to start a collection of baseball cards. In the mornings I drink weak coffee and make up new names for our plants, the ones we haven’t adopted yet but will and when they wilt I’ll cry for them like they were my own children. I’m a burden to you but more than that I’m the love of this year of your life. Everything ends and when it ends I’ll say thank you.
Joanna Acevedo is the Pushcart nominated author of the poetry collection The Pathophysiology of Longing (Black Centipede Press, 2020) and the short story collection Unsaid Things (Flexible Press, 2021). She was a finalist for the Editor’s Chapbook Prize in Fiction from the Southern Humanities Review, and received her MFA in Fiction from New York University in 2021.
Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.com.
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